Things to Consider When Creating Newsletters

One of the things that entrepreneurs or business novices are often afraid of when they start their newsletter printing is whether their newsletters would pass the trash test or not. You may be thinking of what is a trash test. It is simply the manner of testing whether your newsletters will appeal to your customers or be sent to the trash can right after it was handed out.

Newsletter printing is regarded as one of the most important marketing tools for any business owner as it is the one thing that provides the first impression that your target clients have of you and your company. A newsletter serves as an advertising tool as it includes your business profile, latest news on the company, special events, conferences attended, job hiring, among others.

If your newsletter printing templates are not catchy and informative enough, you will find them in the recipients' garbage bin. And that's the end of it.

That is why if you don't want it to see being thrown in the trash can; you need to carefully plan the details and the design before it leaves your business premises.

Here are some of the things you need to take note of when creating a winning newsletter:

Size. One of the things that determine whether your newsletter gets trashed or not is its size. Does it conform to the standards of newsletter printing? Or are you the kind of marketer that goes for the unusual and unique so that you print newsletters that are much bigger (or smaller) than that of the usual standard size? Answer these questions before making a rough draft.

Of course, that would definitely make you stand out as your target clients would find it rare for a newsletter to have a different size. But don't you think your newsletter would be a bit too big and be mistaken as a portfolio? So how would your target clients keep your newsletter? Surely the end result would be the trash bin for you.

Paper quality. The texture of the paper would definitely grab the attention of your client. Especially when it is thicker than the regular paper. Anything flimsy or perforated would definitely get trashed. And a newsletter that would immediately dissolve and turn into pieces when water is spilt on it would have a hard time getting kept. But I am also not saying that a cheap newsletter will always get trashed. A cheap-looking newsletter that reflects a bad reputation for your company will certainly get trashed all the time.

Visibility of texts. Of course, information that is difficult to read because the ink ran out would be useless to your target clients. So make sure that the content is readable and understandable.

Design. The design and look of your newsletter is the first thing a customer gets noticed of. That is why your design should grab their attention so they would want to get it and read the content. Hence, your design and layout should always be in synch with the image you would want to portray for your company. If in case your product is the newsletter itself, designs should be in line with the customer's taste.

Remember that you only have a very small chance of making a good impression with your newsletters. One that they don't like in the looks and design department will surely be rejected in a heartbeat. So make sure you have a variety of designs that they can choose from.

No. of Times this article has been viewed : 369
Date Published : Feb 23 2011

View the original article here

Effective Distribution Plan for Marketing Newsletters

When businesses invest in their own newsletter printing, it can only be for one goal, and that is marketing. While it is easy enough to create great content and designs for newsletter printing, distributing them properly is a whole new and more difficult matter. You cannot sell those custom newsletters like newspapers, and of course it is hard to give them away like flyers. You will need a good and concrete plan to effectively distribute them to an audience.

If you really don't know where to start on this, then let me help you out. Here is your five step distribution plan that should make each newsletter printing you do worth it and successful.

1. Know your target market and create a profile - You will first want to know your target market and create a kind of profile of them. It is of course crucial that you do this since knowing who you will be distributing to helps you gain insights in the ideal locations and ways into introducing your custom newsletters to them.

So spend some time in discerning exactly who your target market is. Know their concerns. Know what they like to see and to read. Determine their habits in reading and the usual locations where they hang out. Each of these key data points will help you decide on the best way to give away those custom newsletters.

2. Determine the key important areas where your targets go - After getting that all important profile, you should then have enough data to determine exactly where the key important areas are that your target market or readers go to. Typically, these should be the areas where your target people pass by regularly in numbers, or hang out for a long amount of time in certain days. Take note of all of these important areas and mark the ones that are nearest and the easiest for you to get to.

3. Deploy racks for high traffic, high concentration areas - With areas set, you should now be ready to deploy. The best plan here is to deploy racks and leave your newsletters there with a sign that says “take one free”. People cannot resist taking something free, even if it is just a color newsletter so this should be a sure fire way to get those newsletters picked up in those key areas. Just make sure of course that you have permission to deploy there if needed.

4. Hire cheap labour to distribute them to mailboxes - Now, after that, to supplement your distribution, you should hire cheap labour (maybe teenagers) to give out your newsletters in community mailboxes. If your newsletter looks good enough and formal enough, they won't mind the unsolicited newsletter in their box. Just give your temporary distributors the key addresses where you think the newsletter should be welcome. The best places are apartment buildings where you can distribute those prints easily in one area.

5. Include them in kits as well as product packages - Finally, to make sure that the consumers close to you get into the action of reading your newsletters, you should include your custom newsletters in kits and product packages. Press kits or P.R. kits should be ideal deployment for your marketing newsletters, and if your products are big enough or their packaging is big enough, you can also slip in the newsletters there. The more spread out they are the better.

So that is your basic but effective plan for marketing newsletters. This should cover all the needed people in a typical marketing setting and help you gain real results from your newsletter printing.

No. of Times this article has been viewed : 400
Date Published : Mar 20 2011

View the original article here